Hoops

103 to 1 in U12 Div 3????

"Why would someone leave success?" That is the bottom line.

There is a "cycle of doom" with anything, be it sport, business, life etc. When you are successful, success breeds success. When you're struggling, morale goes down and then people get itchy feet and aspire to surround themselves with success. Only the strongest moves from a position of success to create success elsewhere. It's easier to stay and be a passenger than be a leader. That's no a go at anyone, that's just human nature.

That is why the challenge is not the weaken the strong, but to strengthen the weak.

Concerned - fully agree. I doubt if it's the kids who are playing for sheep stations at that age.

let me get something right here... "U12" means, Under 12s, right?

It's sad to think that u12s are put under this much pressure.

The emphasis should be on fun as much as possible until secondary school; otherwise, they'll burn out and stop playing (like when they leave school).

There is absolutely no doubt that there is a mismatch and the spread of skills in that competition is too wide. Sturt 3 and Tigers 3 are both winning by an average of over 40 ppg. Tigers 6 is losing by an average of 46. In the North pool, Woodville 3 is losing by an average of 53 ppg.

There is no denying, there is a problem with the balance of that competition. North-South was meant to reduce the travel for players (they are turning 10 and 11 this year), however, with that comes grouping of teams whose skills set range widely from Div 2 to Div 6 standard.

True Hoop, I expect that the kids would be out to impress and a big part of that is following coaches instructions. If a kid is playing Div 3, then they should be aiming for Div 2, Div 2 aiming for 1's.

Looking at that competition, Sturt 3 have held two teams scoreless and two teams to a solo point. When scores like this occur, it is boring and not enjoyable for players and spectators. Without seeing the game, I suspect that Sturt would have double teamed the ball carrier in a hard full court press ALL GAME and been all over them in the back court. I suspect a one sided foul count with probably plenty of fouls not called as well as the refs get sick and tired of calling reaching fouls. Once players get to 4 fouls refs can be a little softer on them. Does anyone have access to the scoresheet? What was the foul count like?
The U12 Boys Div 3 is split between North and South. The issue is probably more related to the range of skill levels in the teams.
Once the game was in the bag, were Sturt pressing hard? Did they need to if they were? Were they aiming for the ton?

There should be something like a mercy rule or they stop counting the score after a certain point or the coach should instruct his players to only shoot threes or ... well, something anyway to reduce the difference between the teams.